Bottle cooler



June 20, 1939. p, SCHLUMBOHM 2,163,568

BOTTLE COOLER Filed March 28, ,1938 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 June 20, 1939. P, SCHL MB HM 2,163,568 BOTTLE 000mm Filed March 28, 1958 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 I Patented June 20, 1939 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE- BOTTLE COOLER. Peter Schlumbohm, New York, N. Y. Application March 28, 1938, Serial No. 198,499

2 Claims.

In my Patent No. 2,075,831 I desoribed an apparatus for mixing liquids. The'apparatus comprises an outer container for the liquid to be mixed, said container having a bottom chamber 5 for a plunger element. Moving the plunger up and down results in mixing thoroughly the liquid. On observing that solid substances like salts or ice when placed with water into the bottom chamber underneath the plunger are surprisingly fast solved by the influence of the turbulence and of the fast mixing of the water, I decided to apply the principles of said patent and the new observations to the construction of the new ice bucket for cooling bottles as described in the present application. Inasmuch as beverage bottles are widely standardized, this means the construction of a specific ice bucket for each of the standard bottle sizes. This handicap is compensated by the simplification as resulting from the possibility to supply people only with the outer container and to ask them to supply themselves the corresponding plunger element in the form of the bottle to be cooled, which will be more evident from the following detailed description of the new ice bucket.

Following my invention the ice bucket com-.

prises a chamber at its bottom, which Iormsa piston-chamber for a piston" w constitutedby the lower part of the bottle. Moving the bottle up and down provides a pumping action to circulate the ice water through the bucket, and this improves the heat exchange between the water and the ice as well as between the ice water and the bottle. Following my invention, the function of the bottom chamber of the bucket is greatly assisted by a widened top part of the ice bucket. to create good hydrodynamicconditions for the flow of the circulating heat exchange medium.

The invention, is illustrated in the accom- 40 Danyingdrawings, Fig. l-Fig. 7.

Figs. 1-3 show specifically dimensioned buckets for bottles of various sizes. Fig. 4 shows a set of three buckets as a commercial unit to be marketed for home and commercial uses. Figs.

5-7 illustrate the new method of cooling a bottle with ice in the new bucket.-

The bottles as popular for bottling drinks can be divided into three main groups for the purpose of this invention, and accordingly it will be suflicient to create three different sizes of the new ice bucket, as illustrated in Figs. 1-3:

Size A, for bottles like large ginger ale and champagne bottles, with a diameter from mm. to about mm. and a cylindric bottom part of 6" len th:

size B, for bottles with a diameter of about 75 mm. and a cylindric bottom part of 6", like Rhine wine bottles;

Size C, for bottles with a diameter of about 65 mm. and a cylindric part of 5" length, like 5 beer bottles.

Fig. 1 illustrates size A and a champagne bottle in the bucket. I prefer the following dimensions:

Lengths: a=10.5"; a=6'.'; a"=4.5". 10

Diameters: ad=4"; ad=4 Fig. 2 illustrates a bucket of size B, with a Rhine wine bottle therein. I prefer the follow-, ing dimensions:

Lengths: 12:10"; b=6"; b"=4". 13

Diameters: bd'=3.5; bd"=4".

Fig.. 3 shows a bucket, size.C, with a beer bottle therein. I prefer the following dimensions:

Diameters: cd'=3"; cd"=3.5.

Fig. 4 shows four ice buckets nested into each other, each one corresponding to the sizes just named. The upper diameters: ad", bat" and cd" may be slightly wider than shown. To make the cylindric bottom chamber of the bucket as 25 long as the cylindric part of the bottle, namely; 6" for size A and size B, and 5" for size C, is the optimal construction. One may build this piston chamber shorter, but this would reduce the efiiciency of the pumping action.

The theoretical amount of ice to cool a bottle is surprisingly small. Even for the largest size, a champagne bottle, which correspondscalorically to 1 kg. of water, only 20 kc'al. or 250 gr. of ice would be required theoretically to cool the bottle 35 from 25 C. down to 5 C- The new ice bucket can handle such small quantities of ice and is in its efiiciency much nearer to that theoretical value than the known ice buckets, which need large quantities of ice to ofier suflicient ice sur- L face to the water which is slowly flowing in con- .vection currents through the container.

The importance of the widened top part of the ice bucket will be understood if one visualizes, that without it the ice water would be shot 45 from the relatively narrow annular space around the bottom of the bottle out of the bucket when the bottle is moved downward. Such spilling of water is not permissible, if the bucket is used on a table, e. g., in restaurants. It will be noted 5 from the drawings that there is a certain symmetry in the shape of the space between the upper part of the bucket and the upper part of the bottle. This symmetry creates favorable streamlines for the flow of theme water, not only 55 on the downward stroke oi the "piston but also when the bottle is not moved. In the latter case, good flow conditions are created for convection currents; the part of the ice water which is warmed by the bottle and flows upward along the surface of the bottle can then flow outward to join the downward current along the cold metal wall of the bucket to be coiled by the ice.

A technical advantage of the principles laid down in this invention is that the diameters in question for this new ice bucket are within the range of the process of extruding metal cans, as, for instance, developed for aluminum cans. Even a champagne cooler (size A) thus can be manufactured at a fraction of the costs as hereto required for such table equipment. Extruded aluminum cans have moreover the advantage of being seamless, i. e., leakproof and rustprooi. By choosing a highly reflecting outside finish, there is even a certain insulation against in-raying heat. Furthermore, the great heat conductivity of aluminum is very useful in this new ice bucket,- to conduct heat from the upper part of the bucket to the bottom of the bucket, if the'ice is applied in the following new way for cooling a bottle, which is illustrated in Figs. 5-7. Following my invention, ice and ice water are filled into the bottom chamber of the ice bucket to the extent that the level of the water is there where the diameter of the bucket begins to widen. This part of the bucket is easily recognized by the shoulder formed there. Fig. 5 illustrates this step of the method. n inserting the bottle, as shown in Fig. 6, the ice pieces are trapped in the bottom chamber and the bottle displaces only the ice water. Moving the bottle up and down as much as the ice pieces allow, causes a great turbulence within the bottom chamber and a perfect heat exchange between the ice and the ice water. Especially if one has only a few ice cubes available, there is to my knowledge no method which would give similar quick and eilicient cooling results.

Trapping the ice pieces in the bottom chamber also avoids spilling troubles which otherwise may be caused by jammed ice pieces in the upper part of the bucket.

When the bottle is not moved, e. g., after havv ing been cooled down and while being kept cold on the table before being consumed, the remaining ice will be pressed against the bottom of the bucket, as shown in Fig. 7, and it is here that the heat conductibility of the aluminum is of special importance, as mentioned above, for cooling the upper part of the bucket by means of the ice at the bottom of the bucket.

The set" of three diflerent ice buckets as shown in Fig. 4 is especially designed as a marketing unit, to be purchased by the housewife for a family household to be prepared for various occasions and various drinks to be served. However, the new ice buckets may also be sold single, and in many varieties in accordance with the shape of the popular bottles. But all of them will be characterized by the bottom chamber which is adapted to the lower part of the bottle and by the widened top part which "completes the function of the bottom chamber as set forth. I may still point out, that it would be wrong to widen the top part in an extreme way, as in that case the ice water which is displaced from the bottom chamber by inserting the bottle therein would not reach a sufllciently high level to cover and to cool the upper part of the bottle as shown in Fig. 5-7. This would reduce tLe efllciency of the bucket.

Having now described the nature of my invention and explained by way of examples the manner in which it may be performed, what I claim is:

1. A device'of the class described, said device comprising a metallic container having a cylindrical portion closed at one end and of a cross section and volume but slightly in excess of the cross section and volume of a bottle-shaped beverage recipient; a second cylindrical portion and a flaring portion. connecting the first and sec-' ond portions; the first mentioned portion being adapted to hold a quantity of ice before the bottle and a flaring portion connecting the first and second mentioned portions; the volume of the body of the bottle and the volume of the first mentioned portion being such thatsaid bottle may be moved back and forth to form a piston for forcing cold liquid refrigerant from the first mentioned portion into the space between the neck of the bottle and the walls of the flaring and second mentioned portions and for permitting the return of such-liquid from said space to the flrst mentioned portion.

PETER SCHLUMBOHM. 

